August 16, 2022
DONATION UPDATE!!!
First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated, and to everyone who helped out!
THE RECAP: We were supposed to go to Latvia in July, and hoped to fill our checked bags with diapers and feminine hygiene products that we were going to drop off directly to Tavi Draugi, a charity helping Ukranian refugees in Latvia. We asked for donations here on Facebook, and from neighbors on our street. Just a couple days after making that request, I contracted COVID and we had to cancel our trip. Meaning we also cancelled our donation collection.
THE PROBLEM: In those 2-3 days of donation collection, you super amazing people donated a HUMONGOUS pile of stuff!!! We promised both the donors and the charity that we would ship the stuff anyway. BUT… the first several places I checked for international shipping costs came back with prohibitive quotes. The cost of shipping was more than the cost of the actual goods, and that money seemed better spent elsewhere.
THE SOLUTION: I turned to my friends at Latvian American Shipping Lines (LASL) hoping they would have some ideas, and indeed they did! LASL works together with Ziedot.lv to deliver materials for charity at a super reasonable rate. While their charity list didn’t include our originally-selected charity, they work with other Ukrainian refugee organizations, and also with the Aizsardzibas Ministrija (Latvian DOD) to move the goods directly into Ukraine itself, and to the locations in the most need. We just needed to get the boxes to New Jersey for shipment. Huge thanks to our friend Aleks for hauling them up north for us! And after a couple delays with the ship, I’m happy to report that THE DIAPERS ARE NOW ON THEIR WAY TO LATVIA AND MAYBE ON TO UKRAINE!
This left us in an awkward position with the original refugee charity, though. So we calculated the approximate value of the donations plus what we wound up finally paying for shipping, and made a monetary donation to them instead. That way we wind up helping twice as many Ukranian families as originally planned.
FINAL DONATION STATS:
50 total pounds
packed into 4 boxes (mad Tetris skillz)
29 packages of diapers
7 packages of feminine hygiene products
62 mini-bottles of baby shampoos and lotions
approx $400 value + $80 shipping
So what was meant to be “hey maybe we can bring along a few packs of diapers or something” turned out to be a bigger deal than expected. AGAIN A HUGE HUGE HUGE PALDIES to everyone who donated stuff, and to Aleks, LASL, Ziedot.LV, and the Aizsardzibas Minstrija for moving the stuff.
If you missed out and would like to help:
Tavi Draugi accepts monetary donations here:
https://www.palidzibaukrainai.lv/ziedojumiem?lang=en
Info about LASL’s partnership with Ziedot.lv is available here:
https://www.lasl.com/small-package-service
And monetary donations to Ziedot.lv charities can be made here:
October 28, 2022
Diaper Donation Update: To my complete and happy surprise, today I received confirmation that our donated items made it to Borova, a town in the Kharkiv Oblast that was liberated on October 3rd. To my even greater surprise, I received the below photos of Ukranian families receiving their items.
I don’t know about you guys, but this has me a bit weepy. THANK YOU AGAIN SO SO SO MUCH to everyone who donated!
Helga without the H 